Dark Arisen came out today, which from what I understand is just the original game with new content and improved UI options. I picked it up today after skipping out on vanilla DD. Any advice or tips for newbies?? =/

I've put a bunch of hours into this game over the past week and I must say the game is pretty good. The night/day elements are done really well. The quest/UI system can be clunky sometimes, the graphics are hit or miss, but the gameplay is fantastic! I'm enjoying this game much more than I did Skyrim. If you can get past the shitty first hour, the game is a blast to play.

This game is $12 on Steam right now and it's a goddamned gem. Imagine if Capcom took their combat sensibilities and wanted to make an open-world game in the vein of Bethesda, but with a touch of Dark Souls' atmosphere. Though the fantasy world is quite generic, and the story is almost nonexistent (usually a deal-breaker for me), playing it is an absolute blast. It ate almost every hour of free time I had this weekend (admittedly not much).

Also, all the Berserk allusions, wow... They aren't overt, but for a fan, they're pretty easy to spot. I've found five elements that I'd say were influenced by Berserk, and I'm only about 10h in.

This game is $12 on Steam right now and it's a goddamned gem. Imagine if Capcom took their combat sensibilities and wanted to make an open-world game in the vein of Bethesda, but with a touch of Dark Souls' atmosphere. Though the fantasy world is quite generic, and the story is almost nonexistent (usually a deal-breaker for me), playing it is an absolute blast. It ate almost every hour of free time I had this weekend (admittedly not much).

Also, all the Berserk allusions, wow... They aren't overt, but for a fan, they're pretty easy to spot. I've found five elements that I'd say were influenced by Berserk, and I'm only about 10h in.

I think I didn't consider this game before because it looked tone-deaf ó too serious and at the same time, generic. But Capcom manages to pull off something akin to "The Room" in how it deals with these fantasy concepts. Imagine: A renown Japanese game developer trying on Western Fantasy tropes. Sound familiar? Now imagine it if they DON'T stick the landing. Welcome to Dragon's Dogma!

This game wears a skin of deadpan seriousness, but underneath, there's something very charming going on, and I think it's basically an accident. Due to Capcom's fumbling execution of how the game systems sometimes interact with the world, it ends up being laugh-out-loud goofy. It's even more enjoyable than if they had perfectly landed their super-serious intentions.

It comes down to the utterly clueless AI.

Aside from the main character, your party is composed of AI-controlled people that you recruit from a sort of limbo, where the main characters from other people's games pass through. These characters are called "Pawns." You are the "Arisen." Pawns fight for you, but you can only give them indirect commands (advance, retreat, help). You can't tell them to cast a specific spell, or to shoot an arrow at a specific enemy. They'll handle things like that AND item scavenging (smashing boxes, chests, barrels), on their own.

This becomes particularly awkward when you're presented with an area that has a serious atmosphere. Like when I visited the witch's tree mansion (yep), you walk in the entrance, and it starts a cutscene. When it returns from the cutscene, your main character is still conversing with the witch, but your pawns are already going to work: Smashing everything in the room and commenting on the qualities of the things they've pilfered: "Not much use for this." "Rubbish, mostly..." "Hmmm, interesting!"

I couldn't stop laughing. This will probably resonate with anyone who has walked in a home in a Zelda game and smashed someone's pots just to find a few rupees. That made some sense in the context of that light-hearted game. But here, in the super-serious world of Gransys, it comes across as utterly insane.

This happened again once I got to the big city, THE capital. You walk in, and itís a grand reception, but in the town square, your pawns, nominally the supporters for the HERO OF THE WORLD, are splashing around the fountain like goddamned bums, pocketing loose change and commenting loudly about the quantity of coinage.

This dissonance is actually somewhat built into the game's lore, too. Normal humans, particularly nobility, don't trust "pawns," because they don't obey the same power structure as others. They answer only to the Arisen. Of course, it could also be that they hold a grudge after pawns smashed all their goddamn pots.

Obviously, there's a lot more going on in Dragon's Dogma that has kept me playing for hours, but this is just one of the more hilarious things I had to share. It is a good, dumb time, with a touch of Berserk on top. So for someone like, me -- kinda perfect.

PS: Have I mentioned that you can pick up nearly anyone (or anything: enemies, corpses, merchants, rabbits) in the game and throw them off a cliff with no consequence? All the while, your pawns will say: "HEIL, ARISEN!"